The finale of the 2007 Aussie Millions in Melbourne featured PocketFiver Jimmy gobboboy Fricke battling against Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen heads-up. In the end, Hansen prevailed, but Fricke pocketed nearly $800,000 for his efforts. Like many members of the online poker community, Fricke now has his sights set on a bracelet from the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He’s entrenched at the Rio playing and handling radio duties for Poker Road. He joins us this week on the PocketFives.com Podcast sponsored by Carbon Poker, which proudly accepts players from the United States.

The WSOP serves as an annual gathering of online poker players and the PocketFives.com Party is a staple of the festivities. In case you’re wondering, this year’s P5s Party will take place in the Staten Island Ballroom at New York New York on Wednesday, July 1st at 7:00pm. On what Fricke looks forward to the most, he told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “All of my friends come out here during the World Series and it’s great to see everyone that I’ve met over the years. The structures this year have gotten a lot better, so a lot of the bigger name pros are making deep runs and having repeat performances.” Two repeat winners this year include PocketFiver Brock t soprano Parker (pictured at left) and poker pro Phil Ivey.

The WSOP was brought to the Rio in 2005 after beginning held at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Downtown Las Vegas. With Harrah’s involvement, the annual poker gala has exploded to include 57 bracelet events, plus four more in London as part of WSOP Europe. On how the new management has performed, Fricke commented, “I feel like Harrah’s is really getting into the groove of things. This is only the fifth year that they’ve run the World Series. They’re doing a few goofy things like trying to make it more of an international event, which I don’t really like. Playing the national anthem while they’re presenting bracelets – It doesn’t really add anything to poker.” Last year, players from 124 countries turned out for the event. This year, a bracelet award ceremony takes place daily at 2:20pm inside the Amazon Room.

Fricke got his start in poker by playing the popular strategy card game Magic: The Gathering. I must admit I attempted to learn Magic, but could never catch on. Fricke noted that his group’s interest then turned to poker: “These were definitely my best friends, so I decided to start learning too. They were all older than me and a friend gave me $300 to sign up under him as an affiliate. I was playing low-stakes Limit Hold’em on PartyPoker and wasn’t doing that well. Then, I got second place in a $20 multi-table tournament for $3,500 and went from there.” At one point, Fricke even sold Magic cards to fund his poker bankroll.

While in Las Vegas, Fricke has served as a host of the “B Team” show on Poker Road Radio along with PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington and Bryan badbeatninja Devonshire (pictured at right). On his newfound radio fame, Fricke told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “It’s really a great honor to be on the show. I started doing it over the summer and it’s been pretty good. I think we’re going towards a lot of things that the show used to be about. We talk a lot about poker strategy.”

Fricke has excelled in live play. Aside from his televised Aussie Millions final table appearance that I’ve caught on numerous occasions at odd hours of the day, the Las Vegas resident won a $5,000 buy-in preliminary tournament held during the Bellagio Cup in 2008 for $443,000. On his advice for aspiring live poker experts, he explained, “You simply have to play a lot. People who play online exclusively need to get live experience. Online just doesn’t play anything like the WSOP. People are so far behind; it’s like stepping back in a time machine to what poker was like four or five years ago.”

He’s traveled around the world to play the game he loves. He has cashes in the United States, Australia, the Bahamas (pictured at left), and the United Kingdom in major tournaments. On the skill level of competitors around the globe, he revealed, “It’s pretty cool being able to step into these other countries, where poker is evolving differently. At the same time, every place is different and it all comes back to having live poker experience and being able to adapt.” Follow Fricke on PocketFivesLive.com, your home for the best WSOP coverage of online poker players.

Check out the rest of this week’s PocketFives.com Podcast featuring Jimmy gobboboy Fricke.

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